Seeking Respect for the Snot Otter

Formally known as hellbenders, which is not much better from a public-relations standpoint, snot otters are giant, slimy salamanders that lurk under big rocks at the bottoms of pristine streams in the Ozark and Appalachian mountains. The nocturnal, mud-colored, prehistoric amphibians look a bit like eels with stubby legs and can grow to be two feet long.

"A lot of people think they're ugly or grotesque," says John D. Groves, the North Carolina Zoo's curator of amphibians and a longtime hellbender enthusiast. "I myself find them very interesting animals."

As for the slime, he adds, "They do have toxic skin secretions, but as long as you don't eat them, you're fine."

The snot otter, a.k.a. hellbender, is a giant salamander that oozes a slightly toxic slime. The critter is an unlikely spokesbeast for wildlife. WSJ's Leslie Eaton reports from the North Carolina Zoo.

Despite various PR hurdles—hellbenders are cannibals, for example—the zoo's nonprofit arm is gamely trying to popularize the creature. In the works is an ambitious marketing campaign that could ultimately involve not just T-shirts and educational posters, but also sock puppets and Christmas ornaments.

Already up and wriggling is the mascot, Snotty, a big-tailed lizard look-alike with brown skin, beady eyes and stubby teeth.

He made his debut—with mixed results—at the New River Celebration in Laurel Springs, N.C., this past summer.

"There was really just one kid that was kind of scared of me," says Ben Stanley, 20, a student at Randolph Community College here who helped create the Snotty costume and wore it at the festival. "Most of the kids were just running all around me; one actually tried to pull my finger off."

Snotty's appearances at the zoo are limited to areas where real animals can't see him, so as not to "freak them out," says public-relations manager Rod Hackney. The same policy applies to other costumed characters.

Polar bears are more commonly the face of the zoo, a series of "natural habitat" installations that stretch over hundreds of acres of rolling hills in the central part of the state.

That the zoo is embracing the snot otter, with its limited fan base, is a reflection of Mr. Groves's passion—and of the hellbenders' plight.

ENLARGE

Snot otters have been declining in the wild, for reasons that scientists don't really understand (although fishermen often kill the creatures on sight).

Ozark hellbenders, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi, have become so rare that in August the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing them as endangered and barring their export. The only other kind, the Eastern hellbender, is also harder to find than it was just a few decades ago; no one is sure how many are left.

While scientists are looking at explanations ranging from silt-blocked streams to chemical pollution and fungal infections for the sad state of snot otters, they know that poaching has been a problem. Snot otters have turned up in pet shops as far away as Japan.

Last September, an Ohio man pleaded guilty to possessing an endangered species and was fined $1,500 after he was found with a two-foot-long hellbender that had been tagged by scientists in New York, says Jeff Collingwood, a state wildlife investigator in Ohio. The salamander didn't get to Ohio under its own steam, he says; "They have a range of about 100 yards."

Though hellbenders can live for decades, they are hard to keep alive in captivity, experts warn, and don't make good pets. Also, they bite. Even the North Carolina zoo has had a tough time displaying its hellbender, a slightly pudgy middle-aged male with a mottled granite-like appearance. He currently lives in a private tank behind the "streamside" exhibit, though Mr. Groves, the curator, would like to put the snot otter on public view soon.

Lori Williams, a state wildlife biologist who works closely with Mr. Groves, is hoping to raise a hellbender in her basement that can easily be put on display at festivals, though she is concerned about the animals' reputation as escape artists. Describing herself as "borderline obsessed" with snot otters, she says, "I have gone so far as to carve a hellbender shape in my jack-o'-lantern every year" at Halloween.

Young snot otters are particularly rare, leading scientists to fear that the amphibians have stopped mating. No one has succeeded in breeding hellbenders in captivity, though the Buffalo Zoo has hatched hundreds of eggs collected in the wild and plans to return the salamanders to New York streams in 2013.

That's why several zoos are participating in a sort of sperm bank for snot otters, says Dale McGinnity, ectotherm curator for the Nashville Zoo. But no one, he says, has been doing as much as Mr. Groves of North Carolina to promote hellbenders to the public: "That's where all zoos need to be making more of an effort."

Here in Asheboro, the snot otters' cause has been embraced by students in Susan Shaw's advertising and graphic design class at the community college. Earlier this month, some of the class's top students met with Mr. Groves and zoo society officials to pitch options for the hellbender-branding campaign.

Hayley McWilliams, director of retail for the zoo's shops, was particularly taken by a T-shirt design that, against all odds, made the hellbender look like a superhero. She hopes to have the shirts in stock soon, she says.

Jayne Owen Parker, director of conservation education, picked a series of posters designed by Brittney King and Patrick McQueen with the slogan, "Ugly's Only Skin Deep." In one, a stylized hellbender poses with a panda mask perched on its head. Another features a snot otter wrapped in a pink baby blanket.

Ms. Parker, who is also a big fan of Snotty, says she hopes profits from the hellbender products will help subsidize Mr. Groves's research, including his field trips to finish a snot-otter census in the state.

But she knows that making the snot otter an amphibian rock star may be a quixotic effort.

"They are beautiful and I do love them," she says. "But they are not fuzzy or cuddly."

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